The World Health Organisation began a two-day emergency meeting on West Africa's Ebola epidemic, with the UN agency deciding whether to declare it an international crisis.

The closed-door session is tasked with ruling whether the outbreak constitutes what is known in WHO-speak as a "public health emergency of international concern".

The organisation also announced 108 new Ebola cases recorded from Saturday to Monday, bringing the total to 1711, with 932 deaths. Nearly all are in the West African countries afflicted by the outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Volunteers prepare to remove the bodies of people who were suspected of contracting Ebola and died in the community in the village of Pendebu, north of Kenema, in Sierra Leone. Photo: Reuters

Taking the form of a telephone conference between senior WHO officials, representatives of affected countries, and experts from around the globe, the WHO meeting is not expected to made its decision public until Friday.

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To date, the WHO has not issued global-level recommendations - such as travel and trade restrictions - related to the outbreak which began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

But the scale of concern is underlined by the WHO emergency session itself - such consultations are relatively rare.

The UN agency this year held such meetings on polio and last year on the mysterious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

But before that, the last emergency meeting had been during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak.

Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed five new cases of Ebola in Lagos and a second death from the virus, bringing the total number of infections in sub-Saharan Africa's largest city to seven.

Those who have died include the "index patient," a Liberian who brought the virus to Lagos on July 20, and a nurse who treated him, the minister added.

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"All the Nigerians diagnosed with EBV were primary contacts" of Patrick Sawyer, who worked for Liberia's finance ministry and contracted the virus from his sister, Mr Chukwu said.

He travelled to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, for a meeting of West African officials.

Visibly sick upon arrival at the international airport in Lagos, officials said he was immediately transferred to the First Consultants hospital in the upmarket Ikoyi neighbourhood.

He died in quarantine on July 25 and the hospital has since been closed.

The five Ebola patients are being treated in an isolation ward in Lagos, the minister told journalists.

Since breaking out earlier this year, the tropical virus has claimed almost 900 lives and infected more than 1603 people across West Africa.

The other cases have been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A Saudi Arabian who had travelled to Sierra Leone and had symptoms similar to those found in Ebola sufferers died Wednesday of a heart attack, the health ministry said.

"The patient died of cardiac arrest, despite efforts by the medical team to resuscitate him," the ministry website reported.

It added that the man will be buried in the Islamic manner, but under precautions laid down by the world health authorities.

The ministry did not reveal the results of tests carried out abroad on whether the patent had been suffering from the Ebola virus.

British Airways announced on Tuesday that it has temporarily suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The suspension will remain in place until the end of August, “due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries,” the airline said in a statement. “The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the route under constant review in the coming weeks.”

The airline is offering customers who already have tickets along those routes a full refund and the ability to re-book flights at a later date.

Meanwhile Spain's government said on Wednesday it will send an air force plane to Liberia to fly an elderly Spanish missionary infected with Ebola back home for treatment.